Monday, January 26, 2009

Results, January 19-26

The major news from joshi this weekend came from JWP & Sendai Girls.

JWP were in Osaka. In the opener, Pinkie Mayuka (w/Arisa Nakajima) scored the biggest pinfall of her short career, as she pinned the current JWP Jr./POP champion, Hiroyo Matsumoto (w/Misaki Ohata). Pinkie made it known that if Hiroyo is successful in defending the junior belts at next weekend's Ibuki show against Sendai Sachiko that she intends to bring it back home. Tojuki Leon beat Kaori Yoneyama in a match that seemed to signal the end of their team, while Kayoko Haruyama and Pure Heart triumphed in a six lady tag, beating Sachie Abe from the Hotta Gundam faction.

However, Yumiko Hotta & Keito took the JWP/Daily Sports tag team titles from Toshie Uemastu & Ran Yu-Yu. Keito did the honors with a modified shubain on Toshie. Tojuki Leon and Arisa Nakajima seem to be forming a team and want to get the belts away from Hotta.

The biggest news in Sendai had nothing to do with their one day tournament. The shocker was the announcement that Tyrannosaurus Okuda, who had been the most heavily pushed youngster in the company but has been injured since last summer, is leaving the promotion. However, it is not a retirement, as she intends to resume her career later this year as a free-lancer. I don't have any further details as to why Sendai's golden child is out the door. I hope this is some sort of angle, as I don't think free-lancing will do her career any favors, as the junior workers tend to need the support of a promotion and an influential mentor to advance beyond jobbing.

In the actual tournament, DASH Chisako and Hiren went to a 20 minute draw. Stipulations stated the lighter wrestler would win, and that ended up being Hiren. Sendai Sachiko beat rookie Yukari Ishino. Hiren lost to Ryo Mizunami in one semi, and Sachiko lost to boss Meiko Satomura in the other. Meiko ended up winning, as expected. Also, the Jaja Uma tournament for young wrestlers will have its second edition, to be run at Sendai shows in February, March, and April. No list of competitors is out yet.

In one other minor bit of news, Maya Sakai, who competed with K-DOJO and JD Star from 2001-2003, is returing to the business and will work with K-DOJO.